3 Content-Powered Link Building Opportunities

This month, as we discuss link building on the Thunder Blog, I started thinking about the role content plays in the process of attracting inbound links. Without compelling content, you’re kinda up poop creek without a paddle when it comes to “bridging the gap,” and that’s not fun for anyone.

Of course, we know that content can come in many shapes or forms. From videos and interactive guides to blog posts and 404 pages, the world of unique content knows no boundaries. But sometimes you don’t have the time (or budget) to create an epic behind-the-scenes series or a 100,000 word eBook, or maybe you’re just looking for some quick content-powered links.

Well you’re in luck! Here are 3 content-powered link building opportunities to experiment with.

Correcting Outdated Content

Time sensitive information is great content, but it’s also susceptible to becoming outdated. If you or your client has an update on a highly covered fact or cyclical event, there’s a low-hanging content opportunity begging for your attention.

Recently, Bill and the Greenlane SEO team created the Outdated Content Finder to quickly search for these opportunities. You can enter any query within a certain time frame, and a list of sites citing these queries pops up immediately. Contacting these sites to fix the information is easy, and it helps both parties.

In Bill’s blog post explaining the tool, he used the OCF to refresh an article about outdated iOS apps, as well as a misleading fact correction about groundwater contamination. Since I’ve been on a Gordon Ramsay kick, I used the tool to find incorrect media references about a new restaurant collaboration between David Beckham and Chef Ramsay. While I realllllly wish this partnership between two of my favorite Brits was a reality, it’s sadly not.

Many gossip sites are still claiming this is true. If I were Gordon’s PR gal (a girl can dream, OK?!), I would use this tool to find these articles and contact them with an actual list of future Ramsay establishments.

Other “content refresh” opportunities include fixing sports records that no longer stand, recent studies on BPA, human evolution discoveries, or annual events that have changed the name of the event. If you’re using the tool differently, do tell!

Discovering Random Affinities

I first learned about this phrase coined by Ian Lurie in his Moz post last year, and he references this tactic in presentations quite often. Basically capitalizing on “Random Affinities” means creating content that takes two interests or ideas with no connection besides a shared audience, and connects them in some interesting way.

For instance, people that like the TV show Adventure Time also like cycling, so how can you create a piece of content that combines both?

But how do you find these content opportunities? Well, Facebook is definitely a good start. Using Facebook Ad targeting, you can quickly research random affinities that might surprise you. For instance, did you know that people who like Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares show also like the awesome cartoon Bob’s Burgers?

It just so happens that Bob Belcher’s kitchen is often pretty dirty, so a fun Kitchen Nightmares-esque evaluation of the fictional kitchen could be fun.

You can also use Facebook Graph Search to find these random affinities! Just follow the steps outlined in Kelly’s awesome post to discover things like “authors liked by people who like Game of Thrones”, “people who like Jurassic Park 3D and paleontology”, “bars liked by employees of Thunder SEO” and more gems to inspire your content.

Google or Ubersuggest, Amazon, and Reddit are also great places to find random affinities.

Q&A Site Sleuthing

Finally, Q&A sites are a great place to find interesting questions about your brand, industry or competitors. Many questions on Quora or Stack are unanswered, and even the ones that are answered are up for debate. Use Q&A sites to quickly find common questions, and answer them in a blog post. You can even chime in on the thread with your answer and a link to a longer explanation without too much complaining from power users.

Keeping with my GR obsession theme, I found this hypothetical question about who would win in a kitchen brawl between Chef Ramsay and Julia Child. I mean, I think my answer is pretty obvious, but this would be a fun piece of content to create.

So there you have it, 3 content goldmines that make link building a little more fun and unique. Have you experimented with any of these tools when creating content for links? Would love to hear all about it in the comments!

Monique Pouget heads up Marketing at ThunderActive. She also likes polka dots, sandwiches, and beards.